Abstract :
The development of photographic reproduction in the late nineteenth century permitted
images in a range of visual media to be published in the press. Focusing on the popular
scientific monthly Knowledge, this paper explores the evidentiary status of reproductions of
astronomical photographs. After succeeding its founder Richard Anthony Proctor in 1889, the
new editor of Knowledge, Arthur Cowper Ranyard, introduced high-quality collotype reproductions
into each number of the magazine. One of Ranyard’s main interests was the
structure of the Milky Way, evidence for which was only available through astronomical
photographs. As Ranyard reproduced photographs in support of his arguments, he blurred the
boundaries between the published collotype, the source negative and the astronomical
phenomena themselves. Since each of these carried different evidentiary value, the confusion
as to what, exactly, was under discussion did not go unremarked. While eminent astronomers
disputed both Ranyard’s arguments and the way in which they were presented, Knowledge
disseminated both striking astronomical images and also a broader debate over how they
should be interpreted.
